Tabebuia bahamensis (Northr.) Britton
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Authority
Gentry, Alwyn H. 1992. Bignoniaceae--part II (Tribe Tecomeae). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 25: 1-370. (Published by NYBG Press)
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Family
Bignoniaceae
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Scientific Name
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Type
Type. Bahama Islands. New Providence, Northrop 218 (K, not seen).
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Synonyms
Tecoma bahamensis Northr., Tabebuia turquinensis Alain, Tabebuia affinis Britton & P.Wilson, Tabebuia leonis Alain
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Description
Species Description - Shrub or small tree to 5 m tall, dichotomously branched, the branchlets terete, lepidote, drying brownish with white lenticels when young. Leaves 3-5(-7)-foliolate, the leaflets obovate to narrowly elliptic, obtuse to rounded at apex, rounded or obtuse at base and well differentiated from petiole apex, the terminal 2-6 cm long, 0.7-2.8 cm wide, the basals 1-3 cm long, 0.6-2 cm wide, subcoriaceous, densely lepidote above and below, drying olive above, conspicuously whitish below, the secondary veins usually plane above and prominulous below, the margin entire to very slightly erose; petiolules 0.2-2 cm long, rather slender, the petiole 1-6 cm long. Inflorescence a few-flowered terminal panicle or reduced to one-few terminal flowers, lepidote, usually with more or less persistent linear bracts and bracteoles 2-4(-7) mm long, these with at least a few long flexuous multicelled trichomes. Flowers with calyx irregularly 2(-3)-labiate, 11-18 mm long, 58 mm wide, usually rather thin and brownish, densely lepidote, some of the scales usually distinctly peltate-stalked; corolla pale magenta to whitish, tubular-infundibuliform above the narrow base of tube, 3-6 cm long, 1-2 cm wide at mouth of tube, the tube 2.5-4.5 cm long, the lobes 0.5-2 cm long, glabrous outside, inside rather scurfy puberulous in floor of tube, villous at level of stamen insertion, the lobes more or less ciliate; anthers deeply included, the thecae divaricate, 2 mm long; pistil ca. 2 cm long, the ovary linear, 5-6 mm long, 1-2 mm wide, densely whitish lepidote; disk cylindric-pulvinate, 2 mm long, 2.5 mm wide. Fruit linear-cylindric, longitudinally striate-costate, 6-11 cm long, 68 mm wide, drying dark or brownish, the calyx usually more or less caducous; seeds thin, bialate, 5-6 mm long, 15-20 mm wide, the hyaline-membranaceous wings distinctly demarcated from seed body.
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Discussion
Close to T. berteroi from which it can be distinguished by the obtuse to rounded leaflet bases and generally more slender petioles and petiolules. I can see no consistent differences between Cuban T. affinis and Bahaman T. bahamensis. Moreover, T. turquinensis seems no more than a higher altitude morph.
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Common Names
beef bush, 5-finger, old man, gunwood, azulejo
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Distribution
Mostly the Bahama Islands, where it is the common, widespread representative of the genus; also northern Oriente, Cuba, mostly near the coast.
Great Abaco Bahamas South America| Acklins Bahamas South America| Andros Island Bahamas South America| Bimini Bahamas South America| Turks and Caicos Islands South America| Cat Island Bahamas South America| Crooked Island Bahamas South America| Eleuthera Bahamas South America| Grand Bahama Bahamas South America| Great Abaco Bahamas South America| Exuma Bahamas South America| Inagua Bahamas South America| New Providence Bahamas South America| Long Island Bahamas South America| Mayaguana Bahamas South America| Turks and Caicos Islands South America| New Providence Bahamas South America| Turks and Caicos Islands South America| Turks and Caicos Islands South America| San Salvador Bahamas South America| South Andros Bahamas South America| Bimini Bahamas South America| Guantánamo Cuba South America|